Arrest made in Vista body dump

VISTA  Authorities on Wednesday arrested a Vista man on suspicion of murder in the death of a woman found wrapped in plastic by a shopping center trash bin last month.

Kirk Leon Stapleton, 53, is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday in connection with the death of Juanita Kawash, sheriff’s homicide Lt. Glenn Giannantonio said Wednesday.

The pair were in a romantic relationship, Giannantonio said, but he did not know how long they had been dating.

Kawash’s body was found the afternoon of Aug. 19, on the ground behind a trash bin on the backside of a shopping center on North Santa Fe at Bobier Drive in Vista.

The 47-year-old’s body was covered in plastic and trash behind the rear of EZ Express Laundry, about 20 feet from a back door customers use to access the business. The laundry is between a Stater Bros. grocery store and a Subway restaurant.

Kawash died from blunt force trauma, Giannantonio said. Her last known address was in Vista, he said.

The lieutenant said Kawash’s body had been left at the trash bin the day before she was found.

On Aug. 21, two days after she was found, authorities arrested Stapleton on an unrelated charge. He was still jailed when investigators arrested him Wednesday for Kawash’s death.

A motive for the slaying has not been determined, Giannantonio said.

Consumer records link Stapleton to a home on Goodwin Avenue near Taylor Street, a little more than a half-mile from the site where Kawash was found. It is unclear whether Stapleton had recently lived at the home.